Brussels, 24/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Making participation in the EU's current Seventh Framework Programme for Research more attractive and more accessible to the best researchers and most innovative companies, especially Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), that is the aim of three concrete measures adopted by the European Commission on Monday 24 January. These measures, based on the simplification plan unveiled by the Commission in April 2010, will take effect at once. Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said: “Today's measures will allow the many thousands of excellent people we fund to save time and effort on paperwork and concentrate on what they do best - working to boost growth and jobs and improve our quality of life in Europe through world class research and innovation”.
Each of the measures adopted on Monday responds to concerns repeatedly expressed by participants and would-be participants in the Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7): 1) allowing more flexibility in how personnel costs are calculated so that EU research grant-holders can apply their usual accounting methods when requesting reimbursement for average personnel costs; they will no longer need to set up entire parallel accounting systems just for this purpose; 2) SME owners whose salaries are not formally registered in their accounts will now be able to be reimbursed, through flat-rate payments, for their contribution to work on research projects; 3) a new steering group of senior officials from all the Commission departments and agencies involved will remove inconsistencies in the application of the rules on research funding.
The Commission says in a press release that it considers simplification to be one of the basic design principles for the next EU research and innovation programme, and it will continue to push for substantive improvement. The Commission will present its legislative proposals for the next EU research and innovation programme by the end of this year, following an open consultation to be launched in the early spring. The Commission points out that several concrete steps have already been taken towards simplifying procedures both before and after the launch of FP7.
In April 2010, the Commission adopted a communication setting out further simplification options which apply to the existing legal framework and, in the longer term, to a possible revision of the EU financial regulations. This communication triggered a broad debate among the EU institutions and with many other research and innovation stakeholders. In addition, the Commission's proposal on the revised EU financial regulation offers simplification still to be applied to FP7, such as the abolition of the interest bearing accounts, and proposes measures which will set the basis for a more radical simplification of the next framework programme. It is now for the Council and the European Parliament to adopt these measures. (O.L./transl.rt)